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Question: Do you think that a freeze on public charges can help tackle higher unemployment and inflation at all?
Governor: I don't believe that a freeze is a helpful way of dealing with unemployment or inflation. I can see that if inflation is a great deal higher that it may have a temporary effect on the inflationary psychology, but that's at the expense of distorting our overall economic policy and distorting our tax system and giving subsidies regardless of need. I therefore prefer to see money used sensibly and effectively and if we are going to give subsidies, see them focused on those who have a real need or have a real disadvantage.
Question: What are you going to do to tackle the problem?
Governor: Well, if you look at the latest inflation figures, though they may be exceptionally good and we may not be able to sustain them at that level, and if you compare them with the inflation figures of two or three years back, I think you will see that we've made considerable progress.
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Question: you now have a problem with China
that hurdle?
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regarding stage two. How do you
Governor: Well, rather like building the airport. Despite the criticism and despite some rather intemperate things that were said, we just kept on going. We kept on digging holes in the ground and kept on heading towards our objective of a decent sewage treatment scheme for Hong Kong. We didn't take very much notice of what was said about what we could or couldn't do before 1997. We've always taken the view that the sewage strategy before 1997 is our business. This project doesn't straddle 1997. We've equally taken the view that because the next stages do straddle 1997 and because one of the environmental options which needs to be considered is a long sea outfall into Chinese water that that is an issue which a matter of legitimate interest and concern for the Chinese side. So I think it's important to distinguish between stage one and stage two. And, we have as in many other ways ignored much of the politics and the propaganda and just got on with the business of doing things for the interest of Hong Kong.
One other issue. I've put out, I've published this afternoon the full copy of a letter that I have written to the Hong Kong Journalists Association about the Broadcasting Bill dealing with some of the intemperate and the wrong-headed criticisms that have been made åbout the announcement yesterday on our decision to postpone a bill, a consolidating bill while getting on with priority issues like dealing with video on demand, paid-TV and the Bill of Rights and freedom of speech aspects
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